Letters to the Editor - October 8, 2026

Hotchkiss should lift restrictions for rec swim

Like the air we breathe, corporations are integral to life in the United States. Their presence is felt through obvious things like branded delivery trucks and, more subtly, through corporate outreach programs. The latter can range from opening facilities for community use to making substantial investments.

Think of a bank supporting Little League, a healthcare company organizing a blood drive, or a manufacturer rebuilding a library—you will have experienced corporate largesse. The better companies recognize that their success depends on employees and the communities surrounding them.

Like oxygen, when such support is withdrawn, its effects are immediate. Social connections weaken, community activities disappear, and life becomes a little poorer.

One such withdrawal recently happened in our NW Corner. On May 22, 2026, Sharon and Salisbury Parks and Recreation notified program participants that the Hotchkiss School had decided to limit “swimming access at the Hotchkiss Pool to residents of Salisbury and Sharon only.”

The decision was made by Hotchkiss, not the two towns. Parks and Recreation expressed hope that the change would be temporary. Nearly five months later, there has been no update.

Since 2022, although a resident of Falls Village, I have participated in Sharon’s lap-swimming program at the stellar Hotchkiss pool, unrivaled among nearby recreational offerings.

While I live in Falls Village, others have come from as far away as Millerton and Cornwall. Over the years, a loose community of mostly older swimmers has formed. We keep tabs on one another, remark on absences, and chat before the pool opens or afterward in the locker room. In an area where we mostly move around by car, these encounters provide important opportunities for friendship and community-building. At a time when loneliness is increasingly recognized as a public-health concern, such interactions matter.

So does the swimming itself. It provides cardiovascular exercise with relatively low impact on aging joints while helping maintain strength and mobility, especially as colder weather reduces outdoor exercise options.

The reasons for Hotchkiss’s decision remain unclear. If liability is the reason, swimmers have been required to sign a waiver. If safety or overcrowding are concerns, surely there are alternatives: sharing lanes, imposing time limits, or adding lifeguards. I would even be willing to pay more if necessary.

Limiting access to residents of only two towns seems arbitrary, particularly when Hotchkiss’s presence affects the entire surrounding community. We all accommodate Parents’ Weekend, increased housing demands by boarding school parents, and the many businesses catering to school visitors. The school should recognize that its community outreach contributes something valuable beyond the offering itself: a framework in which people form connections that strengthen the community.

Challenges should be managed, not answered by eliminating access for a large swath of the people who live around the school. Hotchkiss’s administration should reconsider—and hopefully reverse—its decision.

Olaf Coerper

Falls Village

Vote early and help defend our democracy

Efforts to undermine trust in our elections and to make it harder for people to be heard are happening across the country right now. Our democracy depends on every eligible voter having the freedom to participate without intimidation, interference, or barriers. Voting early means your voice is locked in and safe, days before anyone else can decide what happens next, and it allows time to fix anything that goes wrong (such as a signature mismatch or a missing form). If getting to the polls on Election Day is difficult, voting early allows you vote when it’s convenient for you.

Registered voters can take advantage of Early Voting starting Monday, October 19.

You can’t vote early if you’re not registered to vote! Same-day registration is available on Election Day (Tuesday, November 3), but the deadline for voter registration in advance of Election Day is coming up: Friday, October 16. Please make sure you are registered, and then actually vote – early if you can! To register, visit voter
registration.ct.gov.

Absentee voting is also an option, and applications are currently available at myvote.ct.gov. New this year: you do not need any excuse at all to apply for and then vote by absentee ballot. Voting early in person at your polling station is recommended, but absentee voting is certainly better than not voting at all.

On Saturday, October 17, as part of the NO KINGS – VOTE EARLY rallies across the nation, many towns in our area are hosting rallies and speakers. Cornwall will host a rally on the Green at Cornwall Bridge at 12:00 noon, and we invite everyone to join us. We are expecting a few speakers, including State Representative Maria Horn. Make a sign, come out, and join the defense of our democracy!

Jonathan Arnold

West Cornwall

Habitat thanks supporters of Founders Ball

Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut can’t begin to thank all of the wonderful folks who made our Founders Ball, honoring John Pogue, Judi Moore, George Massey and Tracy Atwood such a success.

It was terrific to see so many old friends and to enjoy the fabulous setting at the Town Grove in Lakeville, as well as the great food and refreshments.Music provided by Brian Mattiello, and our auctioneer extraordinaire, Dave Barger, certainly made the atmosphere complete.

Our Donors and Patrons support made this event such a marvelous evening.It is incredibly gratifying to realize that so many people in Northwest Connecticut link the vibrancy, vitality and resilience of our community to our shared responsibility to encourage a broad spectrum of housing options.As the community thrives, we all thrive.

We look forward to seeing you all next year, and again, thank you for the marvelous turn-out.

Bob Whelan and the Board of Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Connecticut

Stop building data centers

Do you want a data center to move into the neighborhood next to your home? I sure don’t. What are we doing about this? I see all over the country people are being blindsided when the property next to them has been sold and a data or storage center is being built and nobody can stop them.

We need to address this immediately and make sure that this is not the case here in our backyard, in our hometowns, in our county. I don’t know how to address this. I don’t know who to talk to, but you can count me in to do whatever is necessary to make sure we fight the good fight.

Let’s connect and stand up to protect the reason we all live here.

November is right around the corner. Is there a way we can have a moratorium voted on to protect our towns?

Contact me at sonjazinke@comcast.net to get something rolling.

Sonja Zinke

North Canaan

Tax cuts come with consequences

As a taxpayer it is great to hear all these promises of cutting taxes and reducing “red tape.” As a Democrat I am all in favor of paying less taxes, if I agree to cutting the programs that those taxes are financing. I can’t agree to that until I know what Mr .x wants to cut. Food for hungry children? No. Safer roads and bridges? No. As a Democrat, I want to reduce the red tape that imposes a burden on small businesses, if I agree to weaken the protections that those requirements were designed to insure. What protections does Mr. x want to weaken? As a Democrat, I know that allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon would add a significant instability and danger to that region, but I do not agree that we should continue to fight a very expensive war based on borrowed currency that our children and grandchildren will be responsible for. We must negotiate a diplomatic solution.

What are the so-called conservatives conserving? NATO? The Kennedy Center? Our friendship with Canada and other countries?The Center for Disease Control? Our national parks? The US Agency for International Development?Gracious dialogue among well-meaning public citizens?I could go on, but please, dear readers, do not be fooled by those politicians and supporters who espouse big tax cuts and giving away millions of taxpayer dollars, while closing their eyes to the very real consequences of their policies.

Dan Silverman

Former Chair, Falls Village Democratic Town Comm.

Falls Village

Comptroller Scanlon should step aside

Perhaps some folks are pleased that a young Democrat, Sean Scanlon, was given a chance to be the state’s comptroller for the past three years, but the state auditors have cited deficiencies in his administration. Presumably, he’s tried his best, but he should step aside for the better qualified candidate, Jen Tooker. She has the business and political experience to be able to restore accountability, transparency and discipline to Connecticut’s finances. A vote for Jen as our state comptroller will ensure that we will know where our tax money is going and whether long-term obligations are being managed responsibly.

Peter Becket

Lakeville

Cornwall No King’s Day Oct. 17

Saturday, October 17 is No King’s Day, and there will be a demonstration at 12:00 noon on the triangle between Routes 4 and 7 in Cornwall. There’s a demonstration there every week, but this week we will be celebrating the American right to vote and urging people to vote early this year.

Early voting will make it much harder for anyone to tamper with our rights or to use obstructive tactics to keep us away from the polls.

Representative Maria Horn will be there to inspire us and to help us celebrate this important moment. Join us if you possibly can!

Jill Cutler

Cornwall

Who should manage our money?

If you suddenly inherited several million dollars, who would you turn to to manage it for you?A neighbor down the street or a professional investment advisor?

The Democrats running Connecticut have chosen the former.Erick Russell, our incumbent State Treasurer, who oversees Connecticut’s $55 billion budget, has no financial experience.Before being tapped to run for Treasurer in 2022, his job was serving as Vice-Chair of the Connecticut Democratic Party.

Besides being responsible for managing the state’s revenues and expenditures, Russell is responsible for managing the State’s $60 billion pension funds, which fund the retirement of all of our teachers and state employees.Unlike the 48 other states that utilize an independent board of financial experts to oversee their pension funds, Connecticut’s Treasurer has chosen to manage the fund himself.The result has been disastrous.A study by Yale University found that if the State had simply put its pension assets in an S&P index fund, it would have $14 billion more than it currently holds.

Republican Fred Wilms wants to change all this.Holding a BA in Economics and an MBA in Finance, Wilms has spent his entire career in banking and finance, and is currently Sr. Vice-President of Webster Bank.He has also served two terms in the State legislature, where he helped craft and pass the first GOP approved budget in over 30 years.

If elected, one of the first things he would do is appoint a board of finance and investment professionals to take over management of our pension funds.He would also eliminate his predecessor’s directive that a company’s DEI policies should play a role in determining where our tax and pension dollars are invested.Politics should play no role in the management and investment of your tax dollars.

It’s time to put a finance professional in charge of our State’s budget and pension funds.Fred Wilms should be the next Treasurer of Connecticut.

Tom Morrison,

Chair, Salisbury Republican Town Committee

Lakeville

Re-Elect Stephanie Thomas as Secretary of the State

Were it not for years of attacks on our election systems by election deniers, from President Trump on down, many of us might not know the critical role that secretaries of state play in safeguarding our elections. We are fortunate to have a standout in that office: Stephanie Thomas.

Thomas is running for re-election, and she has earned our votes through work to improve voting access, modernize voting systems, and stand up to federal overreach. She was a champion of both early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, especially important for working people, students, caregivers, people with disabilities, rural voters, and the elderly.

In her first term, Thomas has been a steady hand preparing for this critical midterm election. She has led an overhaul of the voter registry, including a centralized registration system that streamlines data across town clerks. She secured a historic $25 million in bonding to replace Connecticut’s aging voting tabulators, the state’s first comprehensive voting machine upgrade in 20 years. And she has stood up to the Trump Administration, including by refusing to hand over Connecticut’s voter rolls to the Department of Homeland Security.

At a time of concern about our civil society, it is refreshing to see Thomas prioritize civics. She has even started hosting “civics trivia” nights on Zoom.

Let’s make sure this guardian of our voting rights and the integrity of our elections continues to serve us.

Lee Greenhouse

Salisbury